EFFECT OF INTERLINGUAL HOMOGRAPHS AND WORD FREQUENCY ON BILINGUAL LEXICAL ACCESS

Toassi, Pâmela Freitas Pereira; Lauro, Justin; Gadelha, Liana Maria da Silva; Carthery-Goulart, Maria Teresa

doi:10.5007/2175-8026.2023.e94613

person Pâmela Freitas Pereira Toassi

schoolUniversidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, Brasil * Assistant Professor at the Department of English Studies, its Literature and Translation, and permanent professor of the Post-Graduate Programs of Translation Studies (POET) and of Linguistics (PPGLin) of the Federal University of Ceara. She was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychology at Barry University in 2023. Holds a PhD in Linguistics (Letras-Inglês) through the Federal University of Santa Catarina and post-doctoral studies at the Post-Graduate Program in Neuroscience and Cognition from the Federal University of ABC. She is the cofounder and leader of LabFoM - Laboratory of Phonetics and Multilingualism (labfom.ufc.br). Her research interests are: lexical access, vocabulary acquisition, teaching and learning of English as a foreign language, teacher formation, multilingualism, crosslinguistic influence, reading and translation. Email: pamelatoassi@ufc.gmail.com.

0000-0003-3273-639X

person Justin Lauro

schoolBarry University, Miami, FL, United States of America ** Assistant Professor of Psychology at Barry University, where he is the head of the cognitive psychology laboratory. He received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Texas at El Paso and post-doctoral studies at Florida Atlantic University. His main research interest is in the bilingual acquisition of novel words. He may be contacted at jlauro@barry.edu

0000-0003-0936-4794

person Liana Maria da Silva Gadelha

schoolUniversidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, Brasil *** Holds a Master in Translation Studies from the Postgraduate Program in Translation Studies (POET), from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC). Specialist in Applied Linguistics, from 7 de Setembro University (Uni7). Graduated in Portuguese from Vale do Acaraú State University (UVA). Graduated in English, from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC). Effective professor at the State Education department, in a technical public high school, in the state of Ceará. Email: lianagadelha1313@gmail.com.

0000-0001-8561-9600

person Maria Teresa Carthery-Goulart

schoolThe University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China **** Associate Professor at the Center for Mathematics, Cognition and Computing, Federal University of ABC and a researcher at the Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology Unit, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo. She is a speech and language therapist, graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo. She obtained her M.Sc. in Psychology in the area of Neurosciences and Behavior from the Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo and her Ph.D. in Sciences (Neurology) from the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo. She has been a Visiting Scientist at the Medical Research Council - Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge (2007-2008) and is currently a Visiting Researcher and a Lecturer in the Unit of Human Communication, Development, and Information Sciences, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. She has studies in Cognitive Neuroscience of Language, Neuropsychology, Psycholinguistics, and Neurolinguistics. Email: teresa.carthery@gmail.com.

0000-0002-2751-4541

*

Assistant Professor at the Department of English Studies, its Literature and Translation, and permanent professor of the Post-Graduate Programs of Translation Studies (POET) and of Linguistics (PPGLin) of the Federal University of Ceara. She was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychology at Barry University in 2023. Holds a PhD in Linguistics (Letras-Inglês) through the Federal University of Santa Catarina and post-doctoral studies at the Post-Graduate Program in Neuroscience and Cognition from the Federal University of ABC. She is the cofounder and leader of LabFoM - Laboratory of Phonetics and Multilingualism (labfom.ufc.br). Her research interests are: lexical access, vocabulary acquisition, teaching and learning of English as a foreign language, teacher formation, multilingualism, crosslinguistic influence, reading and translation. Email: pamelatoassi@ufc.gmail.com.

**

Assistant Professor of Psychology at Barry University, where he is the head of the cognitive psychology laboratory. He received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Texas at El Paso and post-doctoral studies at Florida Atlantic University. His main research interest is in the bilingual acquisition of novel words. He may be contacted at jlauro@barry.edu

***

Holds a Master in Translation Studies from the Postgraduate Program in Translation Studies (POET), from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC). Specialist in Applied Linguistics, from 7 de Setembro University (Uni7). Graduated in Portuguese from Vale do Acaraú State University (UVA). Graduated in English, from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC). Effective professor at the State Education department, in a technical public high school, in the state of Ceará. Email: lianagadelha1313@gmail.com.

****

Associate Professor at the Center for Mathematics, Cognition and Computing, Federal University of ABC and a researcher at the Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology Unit, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo. She is a speech and language therapist, graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo. She obtained her M.Sc. in Psychology in the area of Neurosciences and Behavior from the Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo and her Ph.D. in Sciences (Neurology) from the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo. She has been a Visiting Scientist at the Medical Research Council - Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge (2007-2008) and is currently a Visiting Researcher and a Lecturer in the Unit of Human Communication, Development, and Information Sciences, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. She has studies in Cognitive Neuroscience of Language, Neuropsychology, Psycholinguistics, and Neurolinguistics. Email: teresa.carthery@gmail.com.

	Homograph English version	Homograph Portuguese version	Control in English	Control in Portuguese
Median	4.18	3.46	4.3	3.51
Mean (SD)	4.05 (1.16)	3.45 (0.94)	4.02 (1.18)	3.34 (0.96)
Minimum	1.59	1.81	1.59	1.51
Maximum	6.5	5.62	6.29	5.66

	Accuracy Rates	RTs for correct Trials (SD)
Control English	97%	829 (291)
Control Portuguese	85%	990 (331)

Predictors	Effect of frequency and Language Choice for the HG
Predictors	Estimates	CI	p
English	1172.64	1026.32 – 1318.96	<0.001
Portuguese	-80.85	-220.20 – 58.49	0.255
FrequencyEnglish	-18.84	-118.03 – 80.34	0.709
FrequencyPortuguese	156.28	51.77 – 260.80	0.003
Portuguese:FrequencyEnglish	131.79	-9.63 – 273.21	0.068
Portuguese:FrequencyPortuguese	-231.53	-361.21 – -101.86	0.001
English:FrequencyPortuguese	156.42	-22.92 – 335.76	0.087
Portuguese:FrequencyEnglish:FrequencyPortuguese	-247.83	-455.61 – -40.04	0.020

Random Effects
σ²	134063.00
τ_{00 Participant}	44254.42
τ_{00 Word}	11930.55
ICC	0.30
N_Participant	23
N_Word	17
Observations	387
Marginal R² / Conditional R²	0.065 / 0.341

	SCT	SHG	NCT	NHG
Accuracy Rates (%)	89.44	73.55	82.93	77.64
Response Time for correct trials (ms)	1852	2032	1943	2043

	RT vs conditions
Predictors	Estimates	CI	p
SCT	3136.58	2512.54 − 3760.62	< 0.001
SHG	-397.56	-1335.93 − 540.8	0.406
NCT	-272.50	-1040.24 − 495.24	0.486
NHG	-99.72	-889.38 − 689.94	0.804
Frequency	-280.15	-421.86 − -138.44	< 0.001
SHG:Frequency	132.75	-80.95 − 346.46	0.223
NCT:Frequency	88.97	-84.61 − 262.55	0.314
NHG:Frequency	73.65	-103.84 − 251.14	0.415

Random Effects
σ²	138722.78
τ_{00 Word}	58489.23
τ_{00 Participant}	31770.90
ICC	0.39
N_Participant	23
N_Word	68
Observations	519
Marginal R² / Conditional R²	0.201 / 0.516

Sample Size	23
Mean age (SD), Range	36.4 (7.6), 25-57
Sex	18 Female, 5 Male
Education	21 (91.3%) graduate students 2 (8.75%) undergraduate students
Profession	23 (100%) English teachers
Age that started having contact with English	1 (4.3%): from 1 to 7 years old 14 (60.9%): from 7 to 14 years old 6 (26.1%): from 14 to 21 years old 2 (8.7%): after 21 years old.
Age that started formal learning of English	1 (4.3%): from 3 to 7 years old 11 (47.9%): from 7 to 14 years old 7 (30.4%): from 14 to 21 years old 4 (17.4%): after 21 years old.
Way(s) in which they had contact with English before starting formal learning	20 (87%): through movies, TV shows, music, video game, internet, TV or radio 1 (4.3%): through school 2 (8.7%): no contact.
If they are still studying English	22 (95.7%): yes 1 (4,3%): no.
Subjective L2 rating - Reading	17 (73.9%): Advanced 6 (26.1%) Intermediate.
Subjective L2 rating - Listening	10 (43.5%): Advanced 12 (52.2%): Intermediate 1 (4.3%): Basic.
Subjective L2 rating - Speaking	9 (39.1%): Advanced 14 (60.9%): Intermediate.
Subjective L2 rating - Writing	10 (43.5%): Advanced 11 (47.8%): Intermediate 2 (8.7%): Basic.

	Language choice	RTs (SD)
English	57,6%	1020 (439)
Portuguese	42,4%	1028 (442)